In general, data storage devices are susceptible to data loss or corruption in the event of a power interruption during operation. When a power loss event occurs during a write operation, the data can be corrupted. Further, when such an event occurs during an update of storage device configuration data, such as wear leveling data or directory mapping data, the stored data may not be recoverable upon subsequent power up and re-initialization.
While it is possible to scan each block, each page, and each sector of a storage media to restore a mapping table upon restart and re-initialization after an unexpected power loss, such reconstruction would be time-consuming and would not satisfy instant-on requirements for solid-state memory. One technique for providing faster reconstruction of the mapping table includes storing such mapping tables (to map a logical block address to a physical address of the storage media) at a reserved (dedicated) meta-block area. However, even if the metadata is stored, multiple copies of the metadata may exist at the reserved meta-block area. In some instances, the storage device controller may select stale or out-of-date metadata and therefore locate an incorrect memory location for a read or write operation.